Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 745

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1881

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
379	13 December 1881	Charles Edward Tyree Annie Charlotte Money	Charles Edward Type Annie Charlotte Morey 💍 1881/118	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	months	In the House of Edward W. Money		William Money, Father	December	Rev H. Williams
380	14 December 1881	Adolphus Badair Emily Maude Godfrey		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Tailoress	33 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 year	Registrar's Office		Barr, mother	December	Registrar Marriages
381	15 December 1881	John Henry Sarah Bloomfield	John Henry Sarah Bloomfield 💍 1881/3077	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the House of Rev E. Fraser.	81/3225		December	Rev C. Fraser.
382	17 December 1881	Philip George Saul Elizabeth Doherty	Philip George Saul Elizabeth Doherty 💍 1882/708	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 3 years	In H. Savvons, Church	565		December	Rev H. C. Cocks
383	17 December 1881	Charles Luston Mary Baird Ross	Charles Luxton Mary Baird Ross 💍 1881/3106	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman Dressmaker	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 8 years	Wesleyan Church	81/61	James Ross, Father	December	Rev R. S. Gillam
384	17 December 1881	Samuel Irwin Mary Ann Miles	Samuel Tewin Mary Ann Myles 💍 1881/3114 Samuel Lawson Mary Ann Shiels 💍 1881/1282	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week	In St Michaels, Amberley Church	8/3169		December	Rev E. S. Penny
385	19 December 1881	Arthur Davidson Josephine Renard	Arthur Davidson Josephine Emma Cameron Martin 💍 1881/2849	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 16	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 16 years	In the Registrar's Office	81/2884	Charles, Father	December	Registrar Marriages
386	19 December 1881	Peter Taylor Mary Annie Hunter	Peter Taylor Mary Annie Hunte 💍 1881/2789	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	24 23	Sydenham Sydenham	1 year 6 years	In the House of Rev E. R. Caines	81/2862		December	Rev E. R. Caines

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).